World United States Michigan Glen Haven

Ginny's Journeys Ginny's Adventures 2009

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Aug 31, 2009

"Long ago, in a land that is now Wisconsin, a mother bear and her two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a raging forest fire. They swam and swam, but the cubs tired and lagged far behind. Mother bear finally reached the opposite shore and climbed to the top of a bluff to watch and wait for her offspring. But the cubs drowned. Today, "Sleeping Bear", a solitary dune in Michigan overlooking Lake Michigan, marks the spot where mother bear waited. Her hapless cubs are the Manitou Islands." Chippewa Indian legend.

So now we know how it got its name. I also learned that the Great Lakes were once river valleys until the glaciers came down from Canada, burying the river valleys with layers of ice. Glaciers also brought sand and rocks. There are so many lakes near Lake Michigan because sand created barriers until some water was orphaned from the Lake. Crystal Lake is huge but used to be part of Lake Michigan once! The landscape is like this East of Lake Michigan - narrow sandy beach, dunes, grassy dunes, bushy dunes, cottonwoods, and then on the eastern, protected side of the dunes, thick forests of beech and maple and birch trees. Lakes big and small are intertwined in all that.

M22 (their state roads begin with an M) is a scenic drive along the coast of northwest Michigan and I drove the southern half of it. Once I hit the National Seashore, I detoured into it and drove the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. I stopped at almost all the pullouts and hiked the 1.5 mile trail through dunes and brush and cottonwoods. At the furthest end of the loop, I found myself overlooking a huge dune area where people are allowed to climb them. To get their ya-yas out, I presume. I had a taste of dune climbing on this trail - climbing through sand is not easy.

Pictures should continue this story.